Devices that can be employed with a network may be configured with static, uniquely identifying hardware data like a media access control (MAC) address. While associated with a network, a networked device may also be configured with dynamic and/or static, identifying and/or addressing data like an Internet Protocol (IP) address.
One networked device may “discover” another networked device by examining data like the static, uniquely identifying hardware data and the dynamic identifying and/or addressing data. This discovery may be, for example, a user-driven discovery process where a user provides information about the name, type, location, capabilities, attributes, address and so on of a device that it would like to discover. For example, a user may interact with a user interface to specify parameters associated with a printer that the user would like to have available to their computer.
But, the discovery may become out-dated. Information associated with the discovery, like the dynamic IP address may become stale, get out of date, or otherwise become inaccurate. Conventionally, this may force a user to repeatedly perform the manual discovery process.